Karma

Yesterday, I saw a former tenant and former co-worker who stopped by the job, Matt Philly. He had a black eye and just got his ass kicked and robbed the night before. His new job is only 2 days out of the week and $8 an hour. He lives at his ex-wife's house with her boyfriend and their 4 kids (2 of them are his). He's an extreme pushover and the kind of guy that makes you wonder where the real men in this world have gone.

He caught his wife cheating on him in his bed, in his house when he got home from work. SHE kicked him out. That's right. He was staying at a co-worker's place until I asked if he wanted to be in one of my 2 bedroom apartments. I let him move in with NO security deposit and his only job was to pay the rent and mow the lawn when needed. He was to pay $500 a month, for a guy that made $1300 a month. He started to pay late after the 3rd month and started making up extremely lame excuses (heat and electric bill, food for kids, etc.). It all came to a head when he hadn't paid in a month and was on a payment plan to get back on his feet. After the first two payments, he was late on the next one and didn't pay the following one. He told me it must have gotten lost in the mail. Lost in the mail. When anything gets "lost in the mail" and it's a payment for something, 9/10 times it's bullshit. I saw him the next day at work and told him that I knew he was lying. He said that his wife "threatened" him to give her more money so her and her boyfriend can go to the casino. I threw him out of my property the following week. To top it all off, he started telling people at my job that the reason why he had to leave was because I didn't "fix" anything.

I write this story to state that I gave him a chance to stand on his own two feet. He was spineless and a poor excuse for what a man is supposed to be. I gave him a chance and he screwed me over. And now, karma has given me sweet revenge. I could have gotten mad or beat him up, but I didn't. Watching him with his black eye and living with his ex-wife and her boyfriend (plus his kids that call him a fag) gives me even more pleasure because I simply allowed him to screw himself over. I can only hope that all my former tenants that screwed me over are in worse positions in life than when I met them (most of them turn out to be).

Because of Matt, I changed my policy when it comes to rent. You have until the 6th of the month to pay the rent penalty free. After that is a $35 late fee. If it's not paid by the 15th, a 3-day notice is sent, giving you 3 days to pay the rent. On the 18th, an eviction is filed and we go to court the week after. By the 25th, the judge would usually give the tenant 72 hours to leave. Once they leave, it gives me two to three days to get the apartment ready for rent. This system makes sure that I don't lose money on rents and so far my system works. Matt Philly was a wake up call to stop dicking around with people's excuses and start getting things done. It also made me stop "looking for rent". If it's not there, it's because they didn't pay it. There's no need to call and ask why they didn't pay. If they don't call, evict. Make it easy. Make it simple. Do business right, and let karma take care of the rest.